Community-Driven Content 101

When developing content for corporate blogs and branded articles, content marketers often look to topics they think are important – company announcements, brand stories, pictures from the latest team outing, etc. – but what about the topics customers and readers think are important? Their problems! Customers already know your business isn’t perfect, so instead of covering up flaws and faults, embrace them. Let your community drive your content marketing program by addressing their issues, questions and concerns.Community-driven content is one of the latest trends in content marketing not only because it lets consumers know brands are aware of their issues, but also because now with near real-time online communications it’s easier than ever to know which questions need answering. Adding community-driven content to your content marketing strategy ultimately serves as an outlet for both recognition and resolution… not to mention, it’s a foolproof way to drive traffic and add value to your business’ site!

So how can you create community-driven content? Here are a few tips:

Sit down with your sales team.

Who better to know the pain points of your customers than your sales staff? They’re the ones who know your business inside and out. Sales staffers are asked all the tough questions. They have to pitch a product knowing that an issue might arise and sometimes they may even get turned down because of it. Set up a time to speak with each and every one of your sales team members and ask them what their customers’ biggest pain points are. Use this information to create a series of relevant articles, how-to’s and FAQs.

Quiz your customer support lead.

Customer service is a major part of any business. It’s the first line of defense in safeguarding your brand’s integrity and can make or break consumer relationships. Ask your customer service or support team lead what their top 10 complaints have been in the past 6 months. Answer these pain points in the form of blog or Facebook posts, Tweets, articles, videos, infographics, images, etc. and be sure to share the results with your team.

Compile a list of common questions.

A majority of your business’ customer complaints can mostly likely be traced back to a handful of common problems and your support team can probably answer 99% of inquiries in their sleep. Stop the cycle and take a cue from your customers. Look to your social media pages, blog comments, forums, knowledge base and internal teams to compile a list of the top 100 most frequently asked questions and develop a way to creatively resolve, answer or recognize each one.

Next time you’re stuck for content ideas, take a break from the traditional approaches and include community-driven content. No matter what the pain point, your audience will appreciate the honesty and you might even find yourself receiving useful customer feedback — take advantage of this marketing opportunity and re-purpose feedback into case studies and customer stories!

Have any other ideas on how to develop community-driven content? Share them with us in the comments below or on our social networks — Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+.